Numerous systems exist for the physical tracking of inventory, raw materials, materials in manufacture, or other items in a variety of locations, such as manufacturing facilities, libraries, offices, and the like. Accurate and inexpensive locating, tracking, and inventorying of the physical location of items such as parts, goods, and materials is a necessity for many operations, such as manufacturing and warehousing, for a number of reasons. Such reasons include the desire or need to quickly determine the physical location of a part in the manufacturing process, or to determine whether a part is present in inventory or storage, to determine the quantity of an item on hand, to track the progress of an item in manufacture, and many other such functions.
Apparatuses and methods for the performance of the tracking of material and the performance of inventory-like processes have evolved over time. For example, inventory strategies have been modified from the hand tallying of stock and location in a notebook or the like, to sophisticated computer driven hardware and software for tracking inventory. Traditionally, a full inventory operation could close an entire facility, such as a retail store, warehouse, or manufacturing plant, for a day or more every time a detailed inventory was required. The large costs associated with physically shutting down an operation to do inventory were and are a known cost of the operation of many businesses.
An accurate record of the items available in a store or warehouse, as well as their location, is a key component of successfully operating a business. Knowing what is on hand allows the skilled manager or supply personnel to make informed ordering decisions. Knowledge of the availability and location of items or parts in a facility decreases the amount of time necessary for retrieval of such items, thereby increasing overall efficiency.
The advent of computers, and their rapid entrenchment into mainstream businesses and personal life, has also led to an advent in tracking items and performing and maintaining an inventory. For example, when physical inventory was still routinely performed by hand, a database could be created and maintained to track inventory in a more dynamic fashion. The potential errors of misplacing the physical inventory sheet, and the potential corruption of the physical inventory record were replaced with the increasingly lower incidence of potential errors of lost data and data corruption. Data entry error still also posed potential human error problems. Still, the computerized storage and retrieval of inventory information allowed for various sorting and categorization of data not previously easily available. The database functions of hand entered computer inventories were readily extended to other material tracking endeavors such as warehousing, stocking, ordering, and the like.
As technology continued to advance, various apparatuses and methods for tracking the inventory of a retail store, manufacturing plant, warehouse, and the like, in real-time or near real-time, were placed into use. Production lot tracking technology systems had and have widely varied capability, success, ease of use, and cost. Currently proposed and available lot tracking technologies include manual keyboard entry, bar coding, and proprietary systems such as those provided by JENOPTIK, Fluoroware, Micron Communications, Inc., and Omron.
Manual keyboard entry of lot numbers of parts in a lot tracking or inventory situation is already in use in many facilities. Such systems are not automated, but instead are manually performed. The physical inventory process is still undertaken, and generally the information gathered is entered into a computerized database. Data entry errors due to human error are in large part an unavoidable part of the manual inventory process. Such errors are difficult if not impossible to track and correct. Any information which is desired or required to be obtained and stored or entered into a computer or other system beyond a simple inventory creates additional work for the inventory taker. The time it takes to perform an inventory using manual keyboard entry of lot numbers and the like is not significantly less than traditional pencil and paper inventories which often require the full or at least partial shutdown of an entire facility. Such an inventory process is subject to high costs reflected not necessarily in terms of equipment, but in terms of employee-hours and lost revenues from a shutdown.
Because of its advantages over manual inventory, whether using a computer for further organization or not, bar coding has become commonplace in many if not most retail outlets and warehouses, grocery stores, chains, and large retail outlets. In a bar coding scheme, an identifying label containing encoded information is placed on the goods, parts, part bin, or other item to be identified by a bar code reader. The encoded information is read by the reader with no user data entry generally required. This is referred to as keyless data entry. The information encoded on the bar code is then typically passed to a computer or other processing medium for decoding and data entry. Such data entry is largely error free due to the decreased reliance on error-prone human activities. Bar code data entry is also typically faster than manual data entry.
Bar coding is a common and easy to implement technology. However, bar coding requires a scanner or reader for every terminal, or a portable scanner which is moved around from location to location. Further, bar coding requires a separate label for implementation. Without further data entry, which has additional associated costs and potential error factors, other desired or required information such as an exact location of the scanned item is unknown.
Another type of lot tracking system uses an infrared lot box micro terminal with a pager-like display for lot tracking. A micro terminal is physically attached to each lot box. Each micro terminal communicates via infrared communication with an infrared (IR) transceiver grid, which must be in sight of the micro terminal in order for the system to function properly. Typically, the IR transceiver grid is positioned or installed along the ceiling of a facility. Stacked pallets, lots, or wafer boats will be unreadable using an IR system. The micro terminals and IR transceiver grid of the IR system are expensive. A micro terminal system requires an elaborate software platform, but does allow for reduced data entry error, faster data entry, and simple user entries. The IR system requires a major procedural change in the standards for performing lot tracking. The micro terminals must also be positioned in a specific orientation with respect to the transceiver grid for proper functioning. The terminal must be physically attached to a lot box to be tracked. Lot location can only be identified to an area as small as the IR field of view.
Another lot tracking system is available from Fluoroware. This system uses passive tags in a cassette. The passive tags are scanned by a scanning station over which an item, wafer boat, or lot which has been tagged passes. The item, lot, or boat is identified when it passes over the scanning station. Often, wafer boats are specific to the particular station, but parts may be moved to a number of different locations. Tracking a cassette may require a large amount of reassociation of the tag information to accurately track the part or item. The scanning stations of the Fluoroware system are expensive, on the order of $2,000-$3,000 per station. Additionally, a main computer to centralize, organize, and coordinate operation of the tracking system is required. The Fluoroware system, like other more automated systems, reduces data entry error and data entry time. The tags used in the system are relatively low in cost, and can be embedded into boats. However, many controllers are needed for the system, and the scanning stations have a high cost. Further, the reassociation of tags with different locations requires extra data entry or tag reprogramming, which introduces further potential errors.
When an inventory or lot tracking system works with a large number of parts or locations, which may number into the thousands of locations and many thousands if not millions of parts, the systems described above become unwieldy to effectively operate, become cost prohibitive, or both. Further, with a large number of parts and locations, an exact location match is difficult if not impossible to provide with the above systems. Such a lack of ability to pinpoint the location of a part further hinders the operation and effectiveness of the above systems.
Additionally, items or lots in a manufacturing facility may sit in a certain location without being used or moved for weeks or more. In addition, the pallets of wafer boats in such a facility or storage area may be stacked in stacks five or more layers deep. Personnel are often assigned to physically search all lots to find a lot which may be missing. Lots in large manufacturing facilities have been known to be lost for 6 months to a year. A more accurate tracking system for lots would be desirable.
In manufacturing situations, other tracking of inventory and parts is often desirable or necessary. Such other tracking may include tracking the amount of time a part spends between stations, the amount of time it takes for a part to complete a certain operation, a history of the travel of a part from start to finish of a manufacturing or fabrication operation, and the like.